Human genetics group apologizes for findings justifying racism, brutality and sterilizations

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The American Society of Human Genetics practiced eugenics against Jews, black people, people with disabilities, LGBTQ+ people, and others who did not fit the misconceptions of racial purity and genetic fitness.

The world’s largest human genetics group has apologized for the role of some of its founding members in the US eugenics movement and the negative ways in which they have exploited science to justify racism, violence and sterilizations.

According to the Washington Post, the American Society of Human Genetics’ apology follows an 18-month investigation sparked by the 2020 protests against police brutality. It concluded on Tuesday with the release of a 27-page report in which the organization examined its own history, including how its leaders have exploited science to justify racism, violence and sterilizations and made suggestions for repairing the damage.

The ASHG, which has 8,000 members, practiced eugenics against Jews, black people, people with disabilities, LGBTQ+ people and others who did not fit with misconceptions of genetic fitness and racial purity . It was created in 1948 after the Second World War and the crimes of the Nazis. Germany.

The American Society of Human Genetics, the world’s largest human genetics group, has apologized for the role of some of its founding members in the US eugenics movement and for the way its leaders have exploited science to justify the racism, violence and sterilizations. (Photo: Adobe Stock)

The ASHG seeks to acknowledge and sincerely apologize for its involvement and silence on the misuse of human genetics research to justify and contribute to injustice in all its forms, its board of directors said. in a statement, according to The Post.

According to the group’s report, five ASHG presidents in the 1950s, Lee Dice, Curt Stern, Franz Kallmann, Madge Macklin and Laurence Snyder supported the forced sterilization of people deemed genetically unfit, such as those with physical disabilities and intellectuals, hereditary diseases and mental illnesses. . Claude Nash Herndon, another ASHG president, played an important role in North Carolina’s eugenic sterilization program, which primarily targeted black women.

The ASHG had an inadequate response, according to their report, to claims by psychologist Arthur Jensen and physicist William Shockley that black people were genetically predisposed to intellectual disability.

The story continues

This was especially true during the height of the civil rights movement in the 1960s and 1970s, when racists used sickle cell anemia and the sickle cell trait to discourage interracial relationships and deny African Americans access to jobs. insurance and military service.

Two decades have also passed since the Human Genome Project, which showed that 99.9% of all humans have the same genetic makeup. Accordingly, geneticists agree that race has no biological basis and is solely a social construct.

The ASHG began making efforts to promote diversity and inclusion in 2017. Since then, it has launched programs to mentor and train scientists from underrepresented groups, lobbied for various speakers and topics at of its annual symposium and increased minority representation on its 16-member board. directors, which increased from 5% in 2017 to 40% in 2021.

The report’s recommendations urged the organization to do even more to advance diversity and inclusion in the years to come. Details, including criteria and goals, will be worked out this year, according to ASHG board chair Brendan Lee, chair of the department of molecular and human genetics at Baylor College of Medicine.

The report and its findings are painful, Lee said in a statement released with the report, according to The Post, and document a story that needs to be told and taught so we can prevent a resurgence of genetic racism.

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